Chatter

By Fred

July 30, 2008 3:40 PM | Link to this

It took me 20 years to pay off my mortagage in a no fun industry. I worked sometimes 12 plus hours a day, most often on weekends. The goverment always taxed me and I never asked for any type of help from them. I lived within my means too. Why now should the goverment step in and help people who can’t manage money? Why does should the goverment bail people out who default on loans?

By WOW

July 30, 2008 4:03 PM | Link to this

Let the losers fall on their faces. If they were not smart enough to take an intelligent look into the most expensive thing they would probably ever buy or too greedy to get a fixed rate loan when the rates were low to begin with they deserve everything they are getting now!

By Ryno

July 30, 2008 4:14 PM | Link to this

This problem is 100% the faul of the Democrats. For years they screamed and pointed fingers at the banks and mortgage industry. “RACIST!” they would cry as banks refused loans to individuals whose credit ratings were abismal or whose work history was sporadic. “You’re trying to keep black people from rising up! You’re trying to keep the poor down!”

WELL LOOK WHAT WE HAVE NOW. Billion dollars worth of taxes to be spread across years of government to help those that should not have been helped.

Don’t blame the banks on this one - blame irresponsible Democrats and their failure to help anyone.

By tom

July 30, 2008 4:17 PM | Link to this

This is WRONG! It is a dysfunctional congress and President enabling dysfunctional people and enabling dysfunctional industries. It is weakening our already weakened economy. My taxes going to pay for someone else’s mortgage, when I struggle to pay for my own???????

How much more upside down can our government get?……oh wait, I better not ask that, I am sure both McCain and Obama will be more than happy to show me how much more upside down and dysfunctional they can make it

It must be a contest from one pres to the next to see how much worse they can make things how close they can bring the country to failing without actually pushing us over the line. I think that is what the secret is. All of them are really in on the same goal, it is just a race to see who gets the actual power to push us closer to that edge.

By t-man

July 30, 2008 4:18 PM | Link to this

Don’t you people understand that helping the idiots helps you? Each foreclosure in your neighborhood diminishes your home value. While I agree that the arm mortgages were an abortion and smart people would avoid them, they are a reality biting all of us…

By Road Scholar

July 30, 2008 4:45 PM | Link to this

No one said or supported that loans would be given to those who did not have the resources to pay their mortgage and live within their means. When I qualified for each mortgage, there was an inquest into my assets and liabilities to prove my ability to meet all my finacial obligations. There was an assessment of risk!

The review of peoples’ applications and credit was abandoned under the greedy processes approved allowing less oversight of the loan businesses. Then, when those mortgages were sold to the investment firms, they were billed as sure investments; some were grossly inflated.

It isn’t a racial thing, it was that the dumba$$es in charge endorsed the Repub ideals of less government and bank oversight. No one followed the money and info trail. Read about the Federal trial in Atlanta where one guy has bilked investors out of $15 million by lieing about home values and loans.

The same thing is happening in the war in Iraq and the rebuilding of Iraq. Sure, I trust the defense and services contractors! We’re handing them a blank check also! Where is yor indignation about that?

By L.O.

July 30, 2008 4:51 PM | Link to this

first of all if you currently have an ARM, your payment is plummeting everytime it adjusts - remember, rates have been slashed every quarter since Bernanke took over - secondly this bill is not getting individuals off the hook so the speak, but rather it’s helping the banks that hold the debt because it authorizes the govt to buy back relatively cheaper mortgages - there will be plenty of government owned properties for investors and other interested parties to purchase - this “crisis” has a domino effect that the government caused and could have prevented but it is not the fault of either political party nor is it the fault of “minorities” or low income, low credit score folks - job loss is the major culprit but the banks and the secondary mortgage market (wall street), basically, drastically changed the rules midstream and left us all hanging because real estate is a MAJOR cog of any economy

By Regina

July 30, 2008 4:57 PM | Link to this

Ryno,

This isn’t about race. There are plenty of us who have low fixed rate mortgages based on excellent credit scores and down payments. Let’s get beyond that issue.

As T-man stated, by helping the people, it helps keep our property value. I, too, am upset because of my falling property value and the bail out for people who thought they could buy a $500,000 house with no money down and an annual salary of $30,000.

The big problem came when lending institutions lowered their standards for qualifying for a loan. The builders promoted and perpetuated the problem.

We should just get used to it and just ask the government which one of their accounts they want us to deposit our money. Tax revenue to the state is down due to less driving, they will find a way to recoup the funds. Water departments revenue is down due to lower usage of water because of the drought. The result from being a green consumer…a higher water bill.

By jeffrey

July 30, 2008 5:21 PM | Link to this

Ryno’s right. As we all know, blacks control the US government, blacks control the Federal Reserve, blacks control the mortgage industry, blacks control the banking industry, and blacks control the financial markets. It’s all the blacks’ fault! They should let white men run things for a while. Then, we wouldn’t have all these problems.

By jeffrey

July 30, 2008 5:24 PM | Link to this

Ryno’s right. As we all know, blacks control the US government, blacks control the Federal Reserve, blacks control the mortgage industry, blacks control the banking industry, and blacks control the financial markets. It’s all the blacks’ fault! They should let white men run things for a while. Then, we wouldn’t have all these problems.

By Tim

July 30, 2008 5:32 PM | Link to this

Is it too late for me to go out and buy a house I can’t afford and still expect my neighbors and fellow citizens to bail me out? If you had a neighbor come as you for help with their mortgage you would look at them like they are crazy. When the government uses the power of law enforcement to take your money and give it away for the same reason, you’re okay with that?

By Ripdog

July 30, 2008 5:46 PM | Link to this

This is some utter nonsense. Why should my tax money be used to bail out people who can’t pay their bills and banks that don’t know how to evaluate their clients properly for loans. The market should be able to regulate itself. Newsflash, if you bag groceries at the local market, you probably can’t afford a $400,000 house no matter what funny math the loan officer shows you.

By Davy Crockett

July 30, 2008 6:04 PM | Link to this

“Redlining” stories led to “subprime” loans, which led to this [non] “crisis.” No wonder Bush, a putative Republican, hid when he signed this outrageous unconstitutional bill, which “bails out” cretins, moochers, and losers. Makes no difference which party is in office; they are all crooks.

By Yep

July 30, 2008 6:36 PM | Link to this

Look what the Democratic Congress got us! Yep, lets make sure the poor and oppressed can have a house to live in too. Not a big deal if they can’t pay. We the government can bail them out.

By Realtor

July 30, 2008 6:38 PM | Link to this

This “bail out” is not about “moochers and losers” only. It’s also about helping many that were coherced into bad loans and now can’t afford the adjustments. I’ve had clients come to me with monthly adjustments and just wanted to sell and get out of the mortgage. If they only understood what they were signing. Banks were offering people the cow, the milk and everything else for free. Also, if you believe that minorities weren’t singled out please do a littl research. It has been documented that minorities with the same job history and credit score of whites received higher interest rates.

It’s always easier being on the outside looking in, but we need to help people. I for one don’t care to see my property value continue to plummet due to foreclosures. Save their homes!

By AfroDawg

July 30, 2008 6:53 PM | Link to this

Ryno its spelled ABYSMAL, are you even intelligent enough to sensibly purchase a house?

By ralph

July 30, 2008 6:58 PM | Link to this

White People???????? You are such sad people.

By Mary

July 30, 2008 7:26 PM | Link to this

All I hear is selfishness. These people could not have gotten loans if the financial institutions had not given them. Subprime mortgages sound awfully close to pay day loans to me. Milk the poor for all you can get out of them and then blame them when they fail. How about using some of the outrageous pay the executives of these companies are getting to clean up the mess they have made?

By free

July 30, 2008 7:30 PM | Link to this

jeffrey wrote: “Ryno’s right. As we all know, blacks control the US government, blacks control the Federal Reserve, blacks control the mortgage industry, blacks control the banking industry, and blacks control the financial markets. It’s all the blacks’ fault! They should let white men run things for a while. Then, we wouldn’t have all these problems.”

EXCELLENT!!

By peter king

July 30, 2008 7:39 PM | Link to this

Read the bill….. All the money is going to wall street, not home owners, I would rather give my money to homeowners.

By peter king

July 30, 2008 7:42 PM | Link to this

why do you think Bush signed it?

By eddie

July 30, 2008 7:45 PM | Link to this

Coherced into bad loans?! The math is pretty simple. If you have a home worth 10 times you annual sallary and you are still making payments, you are living above your means. No matter how thick the smoke and how shiny the mirrors, any idiot know what he can and cannot afford.

Problems:

1) Pepople living far above their means. I’ll bet nearly all of the forclosures involved families with cable TV (say $100/ month), late model cars (no doubt a 60 or 70 month loan, say $400/ month with insurance), cell phones (say $75/ month). If these luxuries were eliminated these families could put nearly $600 each month toward their mortgage. While this may not be the case for all families, I’ll bet that in many cases it is just this simple.

2) Mortgage Brokers. Many mortgatges are sold soon after they are made. This gives the origional lenders little incentive to ensure the eventual realization of those promised payments. This gives the origional lenders incentive to trump up the creditworthiness of the borrowers as the loan will be more valuable if its purchaser believes that the payments are assured.

3) Defunct government. The catch-all government soluton is to throw money at its problems. This idea has left us with a national debt nearly the size of our entire GDP! That means if everyone in the united states worked all year long and paid ALL of their income to Uncle Sam, then we would only have about 15% left over. This equal- opportunity b****** has no place in capitalism. If a banker doesn’t feel someone is worhty of a loan, then no equal housing agency should tell him otherwise.

Solutions-

1) Bite the bullit. Deal with a few years recession due to tremendous loss of (artificaially created) wealth. Just as in the tech-boom housing was over- inflated. We must let the markets adjust, meaning we will all loose some.

2) Allow lenders to make loans to whome ever they want and at any level of risk they want. If they turn poeple away, so be it. If they lend money to a pauper, let them feel the sting of the loss.

By Frederick Douglass

July 30, 2008 8:35 PM | Link to this

Now if we can just figure out a way to pin all of this on Barack and Michele, Jessie and Al, Rev. Wright, Gangsta Rappers, the Clayton County school board, Pam Stephenson, Mayor Franklin, Evander Holyfield’s kids, the city of Lithonia, Atlanta Dream, and the Harlem Boy’s choir——-maybe, just maybe, the spot light won’t be on Dubya quite as much.

By DISGUSTED

July 30, 2008 8:44 PM | Link to this

how about those of us who make a living in the real estate business and i mean an honest realtor. because of the greed and callousness of the banks we have this mess. all a person wants to do is own a home and raise their families. now even if they want out and have 5 or 6 contracts on the house the evil banks are not even trying to work with the folks. then folks like me can’t get the contracts close and i in turn start falling behind in my own bills. THE GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO INVESTIGATE THE BANKS WHO CREATED THIS MESS, AND NOW EVEN WHEN A PERSON WANTS TO MAKE PARTIAL PAYMENTS AND WIRE IT TO A BANK LIKE US MORTGAGE, THEY REFUSE TO ACCEPT THE PARTIAL PAYMENT AND QUICKLY SEND YOUR PAPER WORK TO THE LAWYERS TO START FORECLOSURE. MAY THE LORD GOD HAVE MERCY ON ALL OF THEIR SOULS. THE FOLKS AT THE BANK ARE RUDE AND OBNOXIOUS TO THE PEOPLE AND DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE PEOPLE. FOLKS ARE FED UP AND NO MATTER WHAT CNBC SAYS THEY ARE BEGINNING TO ABANDON THESE HOUSES LIKE CRAZY.

By Realtor

July 30, 2008 9:01 PM | Link to this

Amen Digusted!

By REALTOR2

July 30, 2008 9:36 PM | Link to this

It amazes me that people are so quick to yell that it is the “poor” that’s in trouble with the mortgage crisis. As a licensed REALTOR, I can share that the poor and middle class alike, as well as people of different racial makeups suffer from what is going on. There is plenty of blame to go around. Should the homeowners take part blame?? Absolutely, they know better than anyone what their finances are like, and they don’t need a computer or money-hungry industry to tell you what you can or cannot afford. The majority of the blame however should go to the suits on Wall Street. They are the ones who made out like bandits and leaving us to fight with one another, make judgments and cast stones. They were the predators, and that’s what predators do, they take advantage of the weak and vulnerable. Let this be a lesson to all of us.

By REALTOR2

July 30, 2008 9:38 PM | Link to this

It amazes me that people are so quick to yell that it is the “poor” that’s in trouble with the mortgage crisis. As a licensed REALTOR, I can share that the poor and middle class alike, as well as people of different racial makeups suffer from what is going on. There is plenty of blame to go around. Should the homeowners take part blame?? Absolutely, they know better than anyone what their finances are like, and they don’t need a computer or money-hungry industry to tell you what you can or cannot afford. The majority of the blame however should go to the suits on Wall Street. They are the ones who made out like bandits and leaving us to fight with one another, make judgments and cast stones. They were the predators, and that’s what predators do, they take advantage of the weak and vulnerable. Let this be a lesson to all of us.

By DISGUSTED

July 30, 2008 10:15 PM | Link to this

I WISH THE REALTORS WOULD SPEAK UP. THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE BEING AFECTED AND ALL THOSE JERKS ON TV (WHO ARE GETTING PAID BY THE WAY) ARE JUST RUNNING THEIR MOUTHS. THEY NEED TO GO TO THE INDIVIDUAL TOWNS TO SEE HOW MANY FAMILIES ARE ON THE STREET. THIS MESS EVEN AFFECTS EVERYONE. ASK THE MINISTERS IN SMALL CHURCHES. ONE OF MY NEIGHBORS PAID TOO MUCH, PUT THE FAMILY’S LIFE SAVINGS IN THE HOUSE THEN SHE GOT CANCER AND HER HUSBAND COULD NOT KEEP UP WITH THE PAYMENTS. THE BANK WOULD NOT EVEN BUDGE. AFTER BEING IN REMISSION FOR A SHORT TIME THE CANCER CAME BACK. THEY HAD TO MOVE IN WITH RELATIVES. SHE IS UNDER 50. INSTEAD OF TALKING ALL THE CRAP ABOUT THE MARKET, KUDLOW AND THOSE GUYS NEED TO TAKE OFF THOSE FANCY SUITS AND COME OUT HERE WITH REGULAR FOLKS AND SEE WHAT THE REAL TRUTH IS.

By Alecia

July 30, 2008 11:08 PM | Link to this

Let’s face it, people have been trying to buy more than they can afford since the beginning of time. Where did the phrase “keeping up with the Jones’” come from? The job of the banks is to turn down these people in the form of underwriting. A few of the products I remember during the height of the party were 125% loans and approval for FICO’s 500 or more. The lenders knew that the government would bail them out and they let underwriting fall by the wayside. The banks knew they were making a bad business decision when they made the loan. Every tool was available to underwrite the loan properly. Also, lenders were quite pushy with these products and tried to convince people that they were more knowledgeable thn they actually were. I had to say no to ARMS several times to the same lender. Countywide tried to convince my 80 yr old grandmother that a loan was a 30yr fixed when it stated in small letters at the bottom of the page LIBOR. I found out, because she asked me what a LIBOR was. Glad to play interception on that one. The sad thing about this housing bill, aside from my tax dollars being used is that everything aimed at the individual homeowner must be paid back over time i.e. tax credit and any loan relief. However, the banks get to sell back more bad loans and not have to pay the government back. The banks and the government got us into this mess.

By WTF?

July 30, 2008 11:25 PM | Link to this

Had I known the gubment would pay my mortgage, I would have bought my 1.2 million dollar home I adored instead of the house I could afford.

By Mike

July 30, 2008 11:28 PM | Link to this

So if I make irresponsible decisions, will the goverment bail me out? If I live beyond my means, or maybe I will just go into work drunk, get fired, and blame my employer. My parents used to tell me you reap what you sow…not anymore…the taxpayers do the reaping…sad thing is with the two liberals we have running against one another it is only going to get worse.

By zapata

July 31, 2008 12:40 AM | Link to this

It is better to use this tax money to help irresponsible Americans than to use it on a War that should never be authorized. Think: This is to save American lives, not to kill them.

By matt

July 31, 2008 1:13 AM | Link to this

God Damnit!

By Katie

July 31, 2008 5:41 AM | Link to this

Rayno, you’re the racist. You said “they would cry as banks refused loans to individuals whose credit ratings were abismal or whose work history was sporadic. “You’re trying to keep black people from rising up! You’re trying to keep the poor down!” Can white, asian and mexicans not be in the same position??? Hmmmm, duh!! If you have poor credit and a sporadic work history, you shouldn’t be given a loan—I don’t care what color you are. It has nothing to do with being black or poor. If blacks want to do something, here’s a little idea: HELP YOURSELF!!! Stay off drugs, stop having multiple babies with multiple fathers and get an education. Then, when you find a job, keep it and pay your bills. If you do that, you’ll have good credit and a consistency in the work place. Guess what? Then, you’d be given a loan. See how this works???

By Parasites

July 31, 2008 5:53 AM | Link to this

These idiots that can’t manage their finances are going into forclosure are a bunch of parasites that will STILL be unable to manage their finances and will STILL lose the house they had no business getting in the first place. All we are doing is putting off the inevitable, at the cost to everyone else now.

By Corey

July 31, 2008 8:09 AM | Link to this

Southerners, there is no way in he** that we can convince others that we live in the “New South” the racist vitriol on this blog begs to differ. Well, the history of a people defines a people. Peace.

By mechi

July 31, 2008 8:15 AM | Link to this

There are a number of factors that drove the foreclosure rate…sure many people got houses they knew that they couldn’t afford, but this was because the banks (wallstreet) and government allowed it. I do believe that these financial institutions should put up most of the “financing” to get delinquent homeowners out of the hole, but that’s not the reality. Like many have said, we as taxpayers should not have to foot the bill. They should just let the change in lending laws (elimation of ARM’s, validating debt risk, etc) catch up with the economy. In time, foreclosures will decrease and property value will increase again.

By who

July 31, 2008 8:16 AM | Link to this

Nothing southern about it… facts are facts.

By mechi

July 31, 2008 8:33 AM | Link to this

And I must add, that not all people who took advantage of the alternative financing is in a bind. I orginially got an interest only (a form of an ARM, that was due to adjust in 5yrs) but I did so with the plan to refinance into a fixed, which I did after 3yrs and my payments are about the same. Of course I didn’t go out and get something I knew I couldn’t afford down the road, I just didn’t have the initial downpayment at the time. So while many abused or were ingorant of lending laws, there are many who did use it for what it was meant to do…get people in homes, and boost the economy.

By Loretta

July 31, 2008 8:33 AM | Link to this

People give me a BREAK………….I would rather see my tax dollars go to Americans in need than to send it over seas. I work every day for my mortgage and as many investors, I only wanted to buy then sell within a few years now the market has changed and my investment is upside down. It doesn’t matter if you have an ARM set to adjust or are a long term mortgage holder, we all will loose in the years to come if the government does not step in with some assistance. We all are to blame in this Real Estate Mess we are in. Think about…….

By disgusted

July 31, 2008 8:46 AM | Link to this

NEWSFLASH! There are more white folks losing houses than others. Remember their friends at the banks could not wait to help them out because of their race, and the others had to wait in line and even take a bigger hit. As a realtor again I have spoken with many white folks who are crying as much as the others. Lets stay focused. It is about squeezing the small guy out. Fannie & Freddie don’t even look at your names. They look at numbers. Wake up people, this hatred thing hurts the hater more than the hated. I hope you all knew this already. Peace

By DISGUSTED

July 31, 2008 11:32 AM | Link to this

HELLO FOLKS! IF YOUR BANK IS NOT TRYING TO HELP YOU THEN REPORT THEM TO THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION. FTC.GOV

By ma133zda

August 24, 2008 3:16 AM | Link to this

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